Old fashioned winter knocks CBS over budget

By Craig Westcott

To the surprise of perhaps nobody, the Town of CBS ended up spending more on snow clearing operations this past winter than expected.

“Accounting for what we believe December of this year will look like, we’re estimating to go over budget by about $350,000,” councillor-at-Large Joshua Barrett reported last week. 

Like other towns, CBS’s financial year runs from January 1 to December 31. So, the money budgeted for 2026 is strictly for the months of January to April, which has already passed, and this coming December. 

Barrett said the Town will offset the overage by making changes in the engineering department and in its capital budget, but that he was letting everyone know about it now so that council wouldn’t be surprised when it starts working on next year’s budget this fall.

“So, it was a long winter but today was a nice reminder of why we all live in Conception Bay South,” said Barrett on an evening that had seen some of the warmest temperatures of the year.

In addition to facing colder temperatures and more snowfall this past winter than Newfoundland has seen in some years, it was also longer than normal with snowfalls stretching into May. 

“Our winter (snow clearing and salting) shift officially ended April 18, and then a week later we had another storm,” Barrett noted.

His pronouncement that despite the lingering cold weather winter is now officially over drew groans from the rest of council who feared he may have jinxed it.